Method of drying collars.



No. 707,823. Patented Aug. 26, I902.

B. CLUETT. METHOD OF DRYING COLLARS.

(Application filed Mar. 31, 1902.)

(No Model.)

lTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT OLUETT, OF TROY, NElV YORK, ASSIGNOR TO CLUETT, PEABODY & 00., OF TROY, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION.

METHOD OF DRYING COLLARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 707,823, dated August 26, 1902.

Application filed March 31, 1902. $erial No. 100,723. (No model.)

To (tZZ 2072,0172 it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT OLUETT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Troy, county of Rensselaer, and State of New York,

have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Drying Collars, &C., of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to such improvements; and it consists of the novel construc IO tion and combination of parts hereinafter described, and subsequently claimed.

Reference may be had to the accompanying drawings, and the reference characters marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

Similar characters refer to similar parts in both figures.

Figure l of the drawings is a View, partly in side elevation partly in section, of a drying-rack adapted for use in laundering collars by my improved method. Fig. 2 is a View in perspective, on a larger scale, of one of the drying-bars removed.

The object of my invention is to secure accuracy in size and accuracy and symmetry in form of laundered collars and the like.

It is well known to those skilled in the art of making collars and cuffs that by methods heretofore employed great difficulty has been 0' found in securing even approximate accuracy in the sizes of the laundered product. Articles cut from the same pattern are frequently found to vary materially in size after undergoing the laundering operation. This varia- 5 tion is due largely to differences in shrinkage which the articles undergo in laundering, fabric from different webs having different coefficients of shrinkage, while fabric from different parts of the same web is frequently found to shrink unequally. In laundering such articles by my improved method I limit the shrinkage of each article to such a degree only as shall locate the end buttonholes of the article the exact distance apart required 5 for the size of the article. The product of laundering methods heretofore employed is also found to be more or less inaccurate in form due largely to the position in which the articles are supported while drying. Thus when an article like a high-fold collar is saturated with wet starch and hung over a rod to dry the more or less liquid starch may gravitate longitudinally of the collar away from the higher middle portion and tend to accumulate in the lower ends of the collar. Also when such a collar is suspended by one end of the collar-band to hang vertically While drying the weight of the offsetting collar-top will cause the outer lower corner of the top to sag materially, causing a noticeable and objectionable bulging of the edge of the top on the lower end adjacent to said corner and causing said edge to form a different angle with the band from that formed by the corresponding edge on the other or upper end of the top. By my improved method whereby the collars are supported in a horizontal position in a vertical plane while drying little opportunity or distance is afforded for a gravity movement of the wet starch, and the weight of the collar is so distributed that there is no tendency to distort the ends of the top. For the reasons above stated it is necessary to most carefully inspect the work during and after laundering.

The defects above referred to can in some measure be corrected at theexpense of much time and labor, but many articles have to be relaundered to make them salable.

In carrying out my improved method the articles are washed and starched in the usual manner, the novel features of my method pertaining more particularly to the manner of drying the articles preparatory to ironing the same. While yet Wet each article is applied to a suitable support upon which its buttonholed ends are secured by retaining devices at a definite distance apart and so maintained while drying, whereby the shrinkage is limited to that degree only which shall locate the buttonholed ends the distance apart permitted by said retaining devices. By prop- .erly locating the retaining devices the buttonholed ends can be located precisely at any distance apart within the limits of shrinkage of the article, and all articles dried in connection with the same retaining devices will be uniform in size, as determined by the distance between the end buttonholes. I prefer to place said retaining devices in the same hori- 10o zontal plane, and in such a position that when the band is suspended therefrom in a horizontal position the top shall depend from the band in the same vertical plane therewith.

As a means for carrying out my improved method I have shown the retaining devices in the form of hooks 1, projecting laterally from the supporting-bars 2, whereon they are arranged in pairs, the members of each pair being separated by a distance corresponding with the length size of the collars to be dried thereon. The collars are applied to the bar 2 by inserting a pair of such hooks through the respective end buttonholes of each collar, which is left thereon until dry. After the articles have become dry they are removed from the retaining-hooks and are ironed in the usual manner. One or both sides of the bar may be provided with such retaining-hooks for simultaneous or successive use. The bars 2 are preferably made of a length suffieient to accommodate a plurality of collars so supported in linethereupon. The articles so supported may be dried in any known manner.

A plurality of bars 2 may be removably mounted upon cross-bars 3 to form a dryingrack, which may be subjected to currents of warm airin a drying-room in the usual manner.

Any known form of retaining device may be employed adapted to maintain the buttonholed ends of the article a definite distance apart while drying.

The retaining-hooks l serve as a gage for detecting such inaccuracy in size of the articles as cannot be corrected by controlling the shrinkage. Thus if the collar when wet is too long to be supported upon the hooks indicated for its size or too short to be applied thereto the defect is too great to be corrected by con-trolled shrinkage, and the collar must be marked and shrunk for a different size or disposed of as a second or as waste. The

retaining-hooks also serve to keep the buttonholes open by partly filling the same, and thereby preventing the accumulation therein of starch, which upon hardening therein would cement together the edges of the buttonhole.

My improved method is applicable to the laundering of collars, cufis, shirt-neckbands, and similar articles where a definite size of article is desired.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. That improvement in the art of drying, preparatory to ironing, previously-starched collars, and like articles, each having buttonholes arranged to be a predetermined distance apart, which consists in arranging each of such articles with the buttonholes thereof fixed at said predetermined distance apart, and then drying the article and at the same time maintaining the buttonholes thereof in said fixed relation to each other, until the article is dried, substantially as described.

2. That improvement in the art of drying, preparatory to ironing previously-starched collars and like articles having buttonholes arranged at a predetermined distance apart, which consists in suspending the article while wet upon supports inserted through said buttonholes and spaced a distance apart equal to the predetermined distance apart of the buttonholes and drying the article while so suspended.

3. That improvement in the art of drying, preparatory to ironing, previously-starched collars and like articles having end buttonholes arranged at a predetermined distance apart which consists insuspending the article while wet upon supports inserted through said buttonholes and spaced to equal the predetermined distance apart of the buttonholes and located substantially in the same horizontal plane, whereby the extremities below the supports are caused to gravitate to a relatively uniform shape and position and drying the article while so suspended.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 27th day of March, 1902.

ROBERT GLUETT. 

